June 2021 Meeting Minutes

Open­ing:

The Board Meet­ing of the Pana­ma City-Bay Coun­ty Air­port and Indus­tri­al Dis­trict was called to order at 9:00 a.m., June 30, 2021 by Chair Glen McDonald. 

The Invo­ca­tion was giv­en by Vice Chair Hol­ly Melzer.

The Pledge of Alle­giance was led by Chair McDonald.

The Exec­u­tive Sec­re­tary called the roll and indi­cat­ed all the Board mem­bers were present in per­son with the excep­tion of Mr. James Johnson.

Chair McDon­ald asked if there were any Items on the Amend­ed Agen­da, includ­ing the Con­sent Agen­da, that any Board mem­ber would like to move, and if not, to make a motion to accept the Amend­ed Agenda.

Vice Chair Melz­er made a motion to accept the Amend­ed Agen­da, and Mr. Del Lee sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

Pre­sen­ta­tions:

Mr. Del Lee and Mr. Jay Tusa were rec­og­nized and pre­sent­ed with plaques in appre­ci­a­tion for their years of ser­vice to the Air­port Author­i­ty. Mr. Lee served for eight years and held the title of Chair­man. Mr. Tusa served five years.

Chair McDon­ald wel­comed new Board Mem­ber Jason Cut­shaw. Mr. Cut­shaw was appoint­ed as the Wal­ton Coun­ty Com­mis­sion rep­re­sen­ta­tive fill­ing the one year remain­ing on Mr. Tusa’s term.

Employ­ee Recog­ni­tion – Chair McDon­ald pre­sent­ed Life Sav­ing Awards to Sergeant Jose Mar­quez, Offi­cer Jen­nifer Davis, Lt. Rus­sell Fis­er, Fire­fight­er Kevin King, and Fire­fight­er Zach Sell­ers. TSA Super­vi­sor Veron­i­ca Ramos accept­ed the award for TSO Tere­sa Hemmes who was not present.

Part­ner Recog­ni­tion – Chair McDon­ald rec­og­nized and con­grat­u­lat­ed Robin­son Avi­a­tion, Inc.’s (RVA) Dwayne Car­den for receiv­ing the Air Traf­fic Con­troller of the Year Award. 

Reports:

Mr. Park­er McClel­lan pre­sent­ed the Activ­i­ty Reports. Mr. McClel­lan report­ed the pas­sen­ger count for May 2021 was 52,000 over May 2019, our busiest year.

Mrs. Dar­lene Gor­don pre­sent­ed the Finan­cial Reports.

Con­sent Agenda:

a. Board Meet­ing Min­utes – May 19, 2021

This Item pro­vid­ed for Board approval of the May 19, 2021 Board Meet­ing Minutes.

b. Approve Pol­i­cy Change – Paid Leave (this item moved to Busi­ness Items)

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c. Accept FAA AIP Grant Offer for ARFF Vehicle 

This Item pro­vid­ed for Board accep­tance of an FAA Grant Offer for acqui­si­tion of a 1,500-gallon, Class 4, Air­craft Res­cue and Fire­fight­ing (ARFF) vehi­cle to be used in sup­port of oper­a­tions at the North­west Flori­da Beach­es Inter­na­tion­al Airport.

This FAA Grant Offer rep­re­sents one of the Airport’s FY21 requests for grant funds under the FAA Air­port Improve­ment Program.

Under Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion Air­port Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion Reg­u­la­tions, the Air­port is required to main­tain an estab­lished lev­el of air­craft fire­fight­ing capa­bil­i­ties based on the size and num­ber of dai­ly oper­a­tions for com­mer­cial air­craft oper­at­ing at the Air­port. The Air­port cur­rent­ly main­tains two 1,500-gallon ARFF vehi­cles in sup­port of air­port oper­a­tions. In accor­dance with FAA ARFF Equip­ment Replace­ment Pol­i­cy this grant is for the acqui­si­tion of a 1,500-gallon ARFF vehi­cle to replace an exist­ing 2006 vehi­cle, which has reached end-of-use­ful-life status.

This Grant accep­tance for ARFF vehi­cle pur­chase are bud­get neu­tral and will not impact the Airport’s cur­rent, or pro­posed, Oper­at­ing & Cap­i­tal Bud­get. Total pur­chase cost for the ARFF vehi­cle is $717,557.

The Grant also includes costs for minor tools and equip­ment required to oper­ate the vehi­cle at a cost of $4,037. Costs are reim­bursable under this FAA Grant at 100 per­cent for eli­gi­ble items. Total amount of the grant offer is $721,594. Staff rec­om­mend­ed accep­tance of this Grant Offer.

d. Rat­i­fi­ca­tion of Air­field Fiber Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Line Repair – Powernet

This Item pro­vid­ed for Board rat­i­fi­ca­tion of an emer­gency repair pur­chase for the Air­field fiberop­tic data com­mu­ni­ca­tions line dam­aged by a pri­vate aircraft.

On March 28, 2021, a pri­vate air­craft, oper­at­ing from the Sheltair ramp, struck an air­port com­mu­ni­ca­tions box while mis­tak­en­ly taxi­ing on the Air­port perime­ter road rather than taxi­way. The com­mu­ni­ca­tions box con­tained a fiberop­tic line which is essen­tial to the Air­port over­all com­mu­ni­ca­tions net­work and was severe­ly dam­aged from the air­craft impact.

Tak­ing into con­sid­er­a­tion the type and extent of dam­age to the com­mu­ni­ca­tion line a deci­sion was made to con­tact a ven­dor to com­plete emer­gency repairs as soon as pos­si­ble to reestab­lish net­work com­mu­ni­ca­tions in that area of the Airport.

Due to the essen­tial nature of the air­port com­mu­ni­ca­tion net­work, it was nec­es­sary for the Exec­u­tive Direc­tor to approve the fiberop­tic com­mu­ni­ca­tions line repair.

The emer­gency repair of the fiberop­tic com­mu­ni­ca­tions line was a bud­get neu­tral pur­chase and had no impact on the Air­port Oper­at­ing & Cap­i­tal Bud­get as insur­ance funds were received from the air­craft own­er to cov­er the com­plete repair.

Staff rec­om­mend­ed rat­i­fi­ca­tion of the Exec­u­tive Director’s autho­riza­tion to Pow­er­net for repair of the Airport’s fiberop­tic com­mu­ni­ca­tions net­work in an amount not to exceed $16,207.00.

e. Approve Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Agree­ment – AT&T Corporation

This Item pro­vid­ed for Board approval of an agree­ment for replace­ment and upgrade of the Airport’s telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions sys­tem to include phone hand­sets, con­trol­ling hard­ware, sys­tem set­up, and inter­net ser­vice provider.

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The Airport’s exist­ing telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions sys­tem is cur­rent­ly over ten years old and was orig­i­nal­ly installed dur­ing the Ter­mi­nal con­struc­tion in 2010. The sys­tem is ana­log in basis and is now obso­lete and can­not sup­port updates or dig­i­tal format.

Demand on the Airport’s cur­rent sys­tem has been over­whelm­ing at times, caus­ing sys­tem fail­ures, dropped calls, and slow inter­net/Wi-Fi speeds. A new, up-to-date sys­tem, will sup­port cur­rent dig­i­tal telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions for­mats, allow for updat­ed equip­ment to be installed in var­i­ous facil­i­ties at the Air­port, and allow for faster data speeds to be obtained. 

Air­port Staff obtained six (6) pro­pos­als for new telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions sys­tem and ser­vices. All were able to pro­vide the required voice tele­phone ser­vices at nom­i­nal pric­ing. How­ev­er, sev­er­al of the pro­posers can­not pro­vide inter­net ser­vice thus requir­ing a sep­a­rate con­tract with AT&T to lease fiber for inter­net ser­vice. Review of the pro­pos­als indi­cates that AT&T, bundling both telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions ser­vices, as well as inter­net ser­vices, pro­vides the most ben­e­fi­cial ser­vice to the Airport. 

Staff rec­om­mend­ed approval of a telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions ser­vice agree­ment with AT&T Cor­po­ra­tion for 

tele­phone and inter­net ser­vices for the Airport.

Costs asso­ci­at­ed with this con­tract are pro­vid­ed for in the Air­port FY21 Oper­at­ing & Cap­i­tal Bud­get and will be includ­ed in sub­se­quent oper­at­ing and cap­i­tal bud­gets. Ini­tial month­ly (24-month agree­ment) costs will be $1,784.10/month. The new month­ly cost rep­re­sents a $348.52 (24.28%) increase over cur­rent month­ly pay­ments. It should be not­ed; how­ev­er, the new agree­ment includes an inter­net ser­vice increase from 50 MBps up/​down to 150 MBps up/​down. This increase is in response to sig­nif­i­cant increas­es in demand.

Mr. Will Cramer made a motion to accept the Con­sent Agen­da, and Vice Chair Melz­er sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

Busi­ness Items:

a. COVID-19 Update

Mr. McClel­lan addressed the Board and report­ed that the Taxi Queue fees would still be reduced through Sep­tem­ber, and then go back up to where they were pri­or to COVID-19. Mr. McClel­lan said that with COVID case num­bers decreas­ing, he would not con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing an Update for future Board Meet­ings unless cir­cum­stances change.

This Item was for infor­ma­tion­al pur­pos­es only and required no for­mal action by the Board. 

b. Award Bid for Mit­i­ga­tion Imple­men­ta­tion to Wild­lands Ser­vice, Inc.

As part of the West Bay Sec­tor Plan, the Air­port com­mit­ted to the long-term off-site mit­i­ga­tion con­sist­ing of the restora­tion of approx­i­mate­ly 9,000 acres of prop­er­ty in close prox­im­i­ty of the Airport.

The ini­tial mit­i­ga­tion com­menced in 2008 through a 5‑year con­tract with St. Joe Tim­ber­lands Com­pa­ny. The scope of work includ­ed: Dump­site Removal, Inva­sive Species Erad­i­ca­tion, Roller-chop Appli­ca­tions, Gyro-Trac Appli­ca­tions, Pre­scribed Burn­ing, Lon­gleaf Pine Plant­i­ng and Hydro­log­i­cal Restorations. 

In 2013, Staff and ZHA reviewed the effec­tive­ness and costs of the mit­i­ga­tion con­tract and scope of work and deter­mined that sev­er­al of the tasks could be elim­i­nat­ed, as the val­ue towards the required mit­i­ga­tion efforts were either mar­gin­al or com­plet­ed. A tighter and more effec­tive scope of work was writ­ten and com­pet­i­tive bids were solicit­ed. A 3‑year con­tract was award­ed to Wild­lands Fire Ser­vices for 

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$1,659,160 (approx­i­mate­ly $553,000 per year). The scope of work includ­ed: Pre­scribed Burn­ing, Lon­gleaf Pine Plant­i­ng and Hydro­log­i­cal Restora­tions. Dur­ing the con­tract, strate­gic plan­ning and man­age­ment result­ed in expe­dit­ed progress and com­pli­ance through more fre­quent burn­ing and increas­ing ground fuel through wire­grass plant­i­ng result­ing in max­i­mized mit­i­ga­tion impact. 

In 2016, Staff and ZHA again reviewed the effec­tive­ness and cost of the mit­i­ga­tion con­tract and scope of work over the long term. The Base Bids scope of work was estab­lished to meet the min­i­mum scope of work to main­tain com­pli­ance with the require­ments of the Mit­i­ga­tion Plan and Per­mit. The Add Alter­nates were iden­ti­fied to con­tin­ue to accel­er­ate mit­i­ga­tion activ­i­ties based on avail­able funding. 

On Sep­tem­ber 13, 2016, one Bid was received from Wild­lands Fire Ser­vices. A 3‑year con­tract was award­ed to Wild­lands Fire Ser­vices for $783,263 ($261,088 per year). The scope of work includ­ed: Pre­scribed Burn­ing, Lon­gleaf Pine Plant­i­ng and Hydro­log­i­cal Restorations.

In Octo­ber 2018, Bay Coun­ty was hit by Hur­ri­cane Michael, which dev­as­tat­ed vast areas of Bay Coun­ty. The hur­ri­cane cre­at­ed sig­nif­i­cant dam­age to the mit­i­ga­tion area. ZHA, ERC and Wild­lands worked dili­gent­ly to iden­ti­fy the extent of the dam­age and quan­ti­fy the costs to reme­di­ate the area back to the mit­i­ga­tion sta­tus pri­or to the hur­ri­cane. The eval­u­a­tion iden­ti­fied the hur­ri­cane set back the efforts to get to long term mit­i­ga­tion as required by the per­mit by approx­i­mate­ly 6 years and at a cost of more than 

$5 mil­lion. A change order in the amount of $195,757.50 was issued to Wild­lands to extend their con­tract by one year to con­tin­ue the mit­i­ga­tion until addi­tion­al funds were iden­ti­fied to pay for the dam­age restora­tion and allow the mar­ket to cool down from the cost increas­es asso­ci­at­ed with the extreme­ly tight labor market.

In March, bid doc­u­ments were pre­pared to solic­it mit­i­ga­tion activ­i­ties for one year, while addi­tion­al fund­ing was being pur­sued. The Base Bid was designed to include pre­scribed burn­ing equiv­a­lent to the funds avail­able through a mul­ti-year FAA grant. The total grant amount was $143,676, which was com­prised of 90% FAA grant and 10% ECP match. Add Alter­nates were iden­ti­fied to allow expand­ed mit­i­ga­tion activ­i­ties con­tin­gent on addi­tion­al fund­ing. The Add Alter­nates includ­ed unit pric­ing for addi­tion­al pre­scribed burn­ing, which was the most impor­tant activ­i­ty to main­tain com­pli­ance with the Per­mit, and ancil­lary activ­i­ties that may be required to sup­port the pre­scribed burns.

On May 7, 2020, one Bid was received by Wild­lands Fire Ser­vices. The Base Bid for pre­scribed burn­ing of 2,415 acres was $144,800. The unit costs of the pre­scribed burn­ing were the same as the pre­vi­ous con­tract with Wild­lands. The unit costs of the Add Alter­nates were in line with, and in a few cas­es less than, pre­vi­ous unit prices, and the Board approved the Mit­i­ga­tion Con­struc­tion Bid be award­ed to Wild­lands Fire Ser­vices, Inc.

On April 29, 2021, an ​“Invi­ta­tion to Bid” was pub­licly adver­tised. On May 18, 2021, one Bid was received from Wild­lands Ser­vice, Inc. (for­mer­ly Wild­lands Fire Ser­vices, Inc.). It should be not­ed that the bid was received after the pre­scribed time, but the same day. The Base Bid scope of work and costs includ­ed pre­scribed burning:

2,309 acres in year 1 $168,557

2,498 acres in year 2 $182,354

2,490 acres in year 3 $181,770

Total 3 years $532,681

The con­tract will begin Octo­ber 1, 2021 and con­clude Sep­tem­ber 30, 2024, with the option for 2 addi­tion­al years and/​or the inclu­sion of Addi­tive Alter­nates. The acres and cost of the option­al years 4 and 5 are 2,403 acres — $180,225 and 2,407 acres — $180,525, respec­tive­ly. Addi­tive Alter­nate Bids were received for addi­tion­al services.

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All the Addi­tive Alter­nates have bid costs defined by spe­cif­ic work or vol­ume of work per­formed. The addi­tion of any of the Addi­tive Alter­nates will be depen­dent on avail­able fund­ing and will be accept­ed based on the best use of the avail­able funds to fur­ther the goal to reach per­mit-defined Long-Term Main­te­nance sta­tus. Staff rec­om­mends award­ing the con­tract to Wild­lands Ser­vice, Inc. for the Base Bid of $532,681 and future addi­tion of option­al pre­scribed burn­ing years and Addi­tive Alter­nates, sub­ject to avail­able funding.

This mit­i­ga­tion work will be 90% fund­ed by a mul­ti-year FAA grant and 10% Dis­trict fund­ing. The FY21 Bud­get includes funds for this fis­cal year and future Bud­gets will include nec­es­sary amounts. 

Board approval of Staff’s rec­om­men­da­tion to approve the Mit­i­ga­tion Imple­men­ta­tion Con­tract and Add Alter­nates to Wild­lands Ser­vice, Inc. and autho­rize Staff to uti­lize the Add Alter­nates, if fund­ing is avail­able, to max­i­mize the effec­tive­ness of the mit­i­ga­tion effort.

Mr. Del Lee made a motion to award the Bid for Mit­i­ga­tion Imple­men­ta­tion to Wild­lands Ser­vice, Inc., and Mr. Cramer sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

c. Award Bid for Air­craft Res­cue and Fire­fight­ing (ARFF) Vehi­cle Pur­chase – Rosen­bauer Min­neso­ta, LLC

This Item pro­vid­ed for Board approval for the acqui­si­tion of a 1,500-gallon, Class 4, Air­craft Res­cue and Fire­fight­ing (ARFF) vehi­cle to be used in sup­port of oper­a­tions at the North­west Flori­da Beach­es Inter­na­tion­al Airport.

Under Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion Air­port Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion Reg­u­la­tions, the Air­port is required to main­tain an estab­lished lev­el of air­craft fire­fight­ing capa­bil­i­ties based on the size and num­ber of dai­ly oper­a­tions for com­mer­cial air­craft oper­at­ing at the Air­port. The Air­port cur­rent­ly main­tains two 1,500-gallon ARFF vehi­cles in sup­port of air­port oper­a­tions. In accor­dance with FAA ARFF Equip­ment Replace­ment Pol­i­cy this pur­chase is for the acqui­si­tion of a 1,500-gallon ARFF vehi­cle to replace an exist­ing 2006 vehi­cle which has reached end-of-use­ful-life status.

An ​“Invi­ta­tion to Bid” for a ​“1,500-Gallon ARFF Vehi­cle” was pub­licly adver­tised with a Bid open­ing on May 11, 2021. Two respon­sive bids were received at bid open­ing time of 2:00 p.m.

Bids were:

- Oshkosh

o Base Bid (Truck) — $691,667

o Foam Test­ing Sys­tem — $19,687

Total Bid — $711,354

- Rosen­bauer

o Base Bid (Truck) — $689,820

o Foam Test­ing Sys­tem — $6,900

Total Bid — $696,720

In accor­dance with FAA Grant pro­vi­sions addi­tion­al equip­ment options were added to the low bid­der in an amount of $20,837 increas­ing the total ARFF vehi­cle acqui­si­tion price to $717,557.

This pur­chase has no impact on the Airport’s Air­port Oper­at­ing & Cap­i­tal Bud­get as 100 per­cent of the cost of this ARFF vehi­cle pur­chase is reim­bursable under a Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion Air­port Improve­ment Pro­gram grant accept­ed by the Air­port Board on June 30, 2021.

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Staff rec­om­mend­ed Board accept the low respon­sive bid from Rosen­bauer Min­neso­ta, LLC for a 1,500-Gallon ARFF Vehi­cle with Foam Test­ing Sys­tem in amount of $717,557.

Mr. Will Cramer made a motion to award the Bid for Air­craft Res­cue and Fire­fight­ing (ARFF) Vehi­cle Pur­chase to Rosen­bauer Min­neso­ta, LLC and May­or Mark Shel­don sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

d. Approval of Replace­ment Esca­la­tor Step Chains – Schindler Ele­va­tor Corporation

This Item pro­vid­ed for Board approval of a Sole-Source pur­chase for replace­ment parts and instal­la­tion of three esca­la­tor step chains locat­ed in the Ter­mi­nal Build­ing at the Airport. 

The Air­port owns and oper­ates three Schindler esca­la­tors. These three esca­la­tors have been in con­tin­u­ous ser­vice in the Ter­mi­nal Build­ing since 2010. The Air­port is procur­ing a man­u­fac­tur­er-rec­om­mend­ed replacement/​overhaul of the step chains asso­ci­at­ed with each of the esca­la­tors. Only Schindler replace­ment stair chains may be installed on exist­ing Schindler esca­la­tors at the Air­port so as to con­tin­ue and main­tain man­u­fac­tur­er war­ran­ty on the esca­la­tors. Over­haul work and labor must be per­formed by man­u­fac­tur­er-approved personnel.

In accor­dance with State of Flori­da statute, a notice of intend­ed Sole-Source pur­chase was pub­licly post­ed twice to deter­mine if any oth­er ven­dors were avail­able to per­form the replacement/​overhaul ser­vices. No respons­es or com­ments were received.

This pur­chase is a line-item bud­get­ed cap­i­tal project pro­vid­ed for in the Air­port FY21 Oper­at­ing & Cap­i­tal Bud­get and is includ­ed in the Airport’s 2021 FDOT Pub­lic Trans­porta­tion Grant Agree­ment (PTGA). Costs for this replacement/​overhaul project are reim­bursable under the PTGA at a 50/50 ratio.

Staff rec­om­mend­ed approval of the Sole-Source pur­chase from Schindler Ele­va­tor Cor­po­ra­tion for replace­ment of esca­la­tor step chains in an amount not to exceed $148,890.

Vice Chair Melz­er made a motion to approve the Replace­ment Esca­la­tor Step Chains by Schindler Ele­va­tor Cor­po­ra­tion and Mr. Cramer sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

e. Approve Lease Amend­ment 1 – Men­zies Aviation

On Jan­u­ary 1, 2019, Men­zies entered into a lease agree­ment for one car­go bay at the Air­port Cargo 

Build­ing. Since that time, increased oper­a­tions have dri­ven a request from Men­zies to add a sec­ond, cur­rent­ly avail­able, car­go bay to their exist­ing lease agreement.

Air­port Staff has received a request from Men­zies Avi­a­tion to mod­i­fy their lease to add a sec­ond car­go bay and devel­op Amend­ment 1. Amend­ment 1 includes:

• Addi­tion of a sec­ond car­go bay to the lease.

• Updat­ed ​“Exhib­it A” of the leased premises.

• Updat­ed Lease Rate for the leased premises.

The net finan­cial impact of the lease amend­ment will be an increase in lease rev­enue esti­mat­ed to be $918.00/month.

The fis­cal impact of Amend­ment 1 will be an increase in rental rev­enue of 918.00/month and will con­tin­ue through­out the term of the lease unless fur­ther amended.

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Staff rec­om­mend­ed that Amend­ment 1 to Men­zies Lease be approved.

May­or Shel­don made a motion to approve Lease Amend­ment 1 with Men­zies Avi­a­tion and Vice Chair Melz­er sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

f. Rat­i­fi­ca­tion of CHA Extra Work Autho­riza­tion – Addi­tion­al Wind Analysis

This Item pro­vid­ed for Board rat­i­fi­ca­tion of the Exec­u­tive Director’s approval to pro­ceed with the CHA Extra Work Autho­riza­tion for Addi­tion­al Wind Analysis.

As part of the Mas­ter Plan process, eval­u­a­tion of the wind data is required. The analy­sis was per­formed in accor­dance with FAA pro­ce­dures. The results were sup­port­ive of the cross­wind run­way at a short­er length than rec­om­mend­ed in the cur­rent Mas­ter Plan as well as what is rec­om­mend­ed in the Mas­ter Plan under development.

Dur­ing the pub­lic com­ment phase of the plan­ning process, the eval­u­a­tion was ques­tioned and the FAA met with staff on sev­er­al occa­sions to dis­cuss the process and how to val­i­date the data and the analy­sis. It was deter­mined the FAA would pro­vide addi­tion­al wind and oper­a­tional data for times that the Air Traf­fic Con­trol Tow­er is closed.

In order to keep our Mas­ter Plan­ning effort mov­ing for­ward, it was deter­mined by Staff and the Chair that it was in the Airport’s best inter­est to approve this autho­riza­tion for addi­tion­al work, pri­or to the Board Meeting.

The cost of this effort is not to exceed $20,100. The CHA – Addi­tion­al Work Request – Wind Analy­sis will be fund­ed through the Airport’s FY21 Bud­get. Addi­tion­al­ly, Staff will request FAA par­tic­i­pa­tion in fund­ing this Addi­tion­al Work Authorization.

Staff rec­om­mend­ed the Board rat­i­fy the Exec­u­tive Director’s pri­or approval of this work request.

May­or Shel­don made a motion to rat­i­fy the CHA Extra Work Autho­riza­tion for Addi­tion­al Wind Analy­sis and Mr. Cramer sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously. 

g. Approve Pol­i­cy Change – Paid Leave (this item was moved from Con­sent Agenda)

This Item pro­vid­ed for Board approval of a pol­i­cy change regard­ing Paid Leave Pol­i­cy 9.1.

The cur­rent Pol­i­cy 9.1 – Paid Leave was last updat­ed and approved by the Board effec­tive March 1, 2015. The cur­rent pol­i­cy requires updat­ing to com­ply with cur­rent prac­tice, align with local juris­dic­tions, delete lan­guage that no longer applies, and to clar­i­fy cer­tain procedures.

Staff has updat­ed Pol­i­cy 9.1 in sev­er­al areas that include com­pli­ance & pro­ce­dur­al updates as follows: 

For­mal­iz­ing the cur­rent pro­ce­dure that requires all offi­cial leave doc­u­men­ta­tion to be held by the Finance and Admin­is­tra­tion Depart­ment; enhanc­ing lan­guage relat­ed to account­ing for leave time used; out­lin­ing respon­si­bil­i­ties and def­i­n­i­tions; enhanc­ing lan­guage on when hol­i­days will be observed; clar­i­fy­ing employ­ee eli­gi­bil­i­ty and leave accru­al and usage lan­guage; enhanc­ing super­vi­so­ry respon­si­bil­i­ty for track­ing time; increas­ing sick hours payable at retirement/​termination to employ­ees 65 and older;

clar­i­fy­ing min­i­mum leave time used; and adding new sec­tions for Admin­is­tra­tive Leave and Leave With­out Pay.

Staff also con­duct­ed research to ensure our poli­cies are in line with the local juris­dic­tions to ensure we 

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remain com­pet­i­tive and an attrac­tive employ­er to our cur­rent and future employ­ees, but also remain­ing fis­cal­ly con­ser­v­a­tive in ben­e­fit options. Includ­ed in this pol­i­cy revi­sion is the addi­tion of two hol­i­days – Pres­i­dents’ Day and a Per­son­al Day. For com­par­a­tive pur­pos­es, Pana­ma City Beach offers 13 paid hol­i­days, Bay Coun­ty offers 12 paid hol­i­days, and Pana­ma City offers 11 paid hol­i­days. The addi­tion of two hol­i­days to the Airport’s leave pol­i­cy will increase our num­ber of paid hol­i­days offered from 10 to 12.

There is suf­fi­cient fund­ing with­in the FY21 Air­port Oper­at­ing & Cap­i­tal Bud­get to absorb the esti­mat­ed impact of $5,600, and future costs will be includ­ed in sub­se­quent Bud­gets. The finan­cial impact is asso­ci­at­ed with our First Respon­ders that are required to staff the facil­i­ties ²⁴⁄₇.

Vice Chair Melz­er ques­tioned time off requests dur­ing high vol­ume hol­i­days for the Air­port, and it was explained there is flex­i­bil­i­ty in sched­ules, coor­di­nat­ed cov­er­age, hol­i­day pay, and knowl­edge of job require­ments and job expectations. 

Staff rec­om­mend­ed the Board approve the update to Pol­i­cy 9.1 – Paid Leave. 

Vice Chair Melz­er made a motion to approve pol­i­cy change regard­ing Paid Leave Pol­i­cy 9.1 and Mr. Lee sec­ond­ed the motion. The vote was tak­en and the motion passed unanimously.

Con­struc­tion Update (infor­ma­tion only):

a. Air­port Entrance Round­about and State Road (SR) 388 Realignment

Mr. McConnell report­ed the SR 388/​Airport Entrance Round­about is pro­ceed­ing on sched­ule, on bud­get, and they con­tin­ue to work on the diver­sion that should start some­time in August. Mr. McConnell report­ed we should have the Main­te­nance of Traf­fic (MOT) some­time in July and they are devel­op­ing a pub­lic aware­ness pro­gram for the change in the traf­fic pat­tern. He said once that is put in place, they will be free to being work on the Round­about. He said the prob­lems with the pylons has been reme­died, and bridge con­struc­tion has begun. Mr. McConnell added that the project is still set to fin­ish up in ear­ly/mid-2023.

b. Air­craft Park­ing Apron Expansion

Mr. Richard McConnell report­ed the con­crete is near­ly fin­ished for the Air­craft Park­ing Apron Expan­sion Phase 1 Project stat­ing it should be com­plet­ed as soon as weath­er per­mits. He said it is on sched­ule and on bud­get, and the Air­port has imple­ment­ed an Air­craft Over­flow Pro­gram here at the Ter­mi­nal that allows us to uti­lize that Apron for air car­ri­er air­craft wait­ing for Gate assignments.

Bay EDA Update:

Bay EDA Pres­i­dent Ms. Bec­ca Hardin report­ed that like the Air­port, they have seen a dra­mat­ic uptick in prospect activ­i­ty. She report­ed that one of the MRO com­pa­nies that Chair McDon­ald, Mr. McClel­lan and she met with at the MRO Show, Project Ace, will be vis­it­ing. The com­pa­ny would need to build a hangar next to the Run­way, pro­vide 200 jobs, and have $45 mil­lion cap­i­tal invest­ment; in addi­tion to an engine test cell, for anoth­er large cap­i­tal investment. 

Ms. Hardin report­ed that anoth­er MRO com­pa­ny, Project Tiger, vis­it­ed twice and is look­ing to build a small­er hangar and have been shown the north site adja­cent to the Run­way. They would pro­vide 50 jobs, $10 mil­lion in cap­i­tal invest­ment, does a lot of MRO work with gen­er­al avi­a­tion, and would ben­e­fit from Sheltair’s expan­sion and growth. 

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Ms. Hardin report­ed avi­a­tion-relat­ed Project Space, a large project sent to them by their State part­ner Enter­prise Flori­da, would also need to be by the Run­way, pro­vide 249 jobs and $55 mil­lion cap­i­tal invest­ment, and the hope is that they come vis­it as well.

Ms. Hardin report­ed anoth­er MRO com­pa­ny need­ing a hangar here at the Air­port, Project Cryp­to, came to us from the Orlan­do MRO Show, had the CEO vis­it two weeks ago, would pro­vide 150 jobs, $30 mil­lion cap­i­tal invest­ment, and is cur­rent­ly going through the Bay EDA finan­cial vet­ting process.

Ms. Hardin report­ed that anoth­er prospect, Project Eden went through the Bay EDA exten­sive finan­cial vet­ting process, but their finan­cials weren’t strong enough to take that project further.

Ms. Hardin report­ed that Project Jane, a med­ical man­u­fac­tur­ing cam­pus that came to us from Enter­prise Flori­da, is look­ing for a green field site at Ven­ture Cross­ings, would need three sep­a­rate build­ings, and would pro­vide 550 jobs and $400 mil­lion cap­i­tal investment.

Ms. Hardin report­ed on an advanced man­u­fac­tur­ing com­pa­ny, Project Light­ning Strike, say­ing that Board Mem­ber Will Cramer met with the CEO, and the com­pa­ny is in nego­ti­a­tions with GKN at Ven­ture Cross­ings to lease the build­ing. They would pro­vide 220 jobs and $45 mil­lion cap­i­tal investment.

Ms. Hardin added that with Europe open­ing up since the pan­dem­ic start­ed, tick­ets have been booked to trav­el to the next MRO Show in Octo­ber in Ams­ter­dam. She said talks have still been hap­pen­ing with the avi­a­tion-relat­ed com­pa­ny Project Venus, a Euro­pean MRO prospect need­ing the Run­way that would pro­vide 250 jobs but has been unable to trav­el here since the pan­dem­ic. She said that with Europe open­ing up, they are hop­ing they can come vis­it soon because they are still very interested.

She fin­ished by inform­ing the Board that the two biggest ques­tions that are asked by prospects, are not about the price of the prop­er­ty, or the incen­tives, but rather: 1) can you fill our work­force need? and 2) will hous­ing be avail­able? She said that once projects are final­ized, a col­lab­o­ra­tive private/​public part­ner­ship effort will be need­ed to sat­is­fy those needs.

The Moore Agency Update:

Katie Spill­man of The Moore Agency shared a brief update on the ECP Ready Cam­paign, May media high­lights, the ECP Enhanced Cam­paign Update, influ­encer engage­ment, and the new ECP Orig­i­nal Pho­tog­ra­phy shoot.

Ms. Spill­man shared a video of one of the des­ti­na­tion-spe­cif­ic social media dig­i­tal video clips that will run through the sum­mer, accom­pa­ny Face­book copy, and a call to action that dri­ves folks to our website.

Ms. Spill­man report­ed Amer­i­can Air­lines’ inau­gur­al Philadel­phia flight in ear­ly May caught a lot of 

media atten­tion with its water can­non salute, TV inter­views with Mr. McClel­lan and with pas­sen­gers, and said that over 450,000 media impres­sions were gar­nered just from that story.

Ms. Spill­man report­ed that Mr. McClel­lan was inter­viewed on the radio pro­gram Don and Veron­i­ca Live; the Sim­ple Fly­ing arti­cle named ECP among the top four U.S. Air­ports hav­ing the most capac­i­ty growth since the pan­dem­ic began; and the approved Enhanced Cam­paign selec­tion was being finalized.

Ms. Spill­man described an employ­ee of The Moore Agency’s quick response to see­ing social media macro influ­encer Mal­lo­ry Ervin’s inquiry regard­ing ground trans­porta­tion here at ECP. The employ­ee, a fol­low­er of Mrs. Ervin, alert­ed her employ­er and Ms. Spill­man in turn shared the result­ing pos­i­tive engage­ment with Mr. McClel­lan and Paul from Hertz upon arrival here from Nashville. Ms. Spill­man report­ed that Mrs. Ervin, who has 744,000 fol­low­ers, shared how thrilled she was with her great expe­ri­ence, and Ms. Spill­man shared Mrs. Ervin’s Insta­gram Sto­ry, worth a val­ue equiv­a­lent to $6,000 –

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$8,000.

Ms. Spill­man fin­ished her report by offer­ing up pho­tos from a recent Air­port pho­tog­ra­phy ses­sion tak­en for social media and our web­site, for any Board mem­bers look­ing for a fresh Air­port photo.

Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Report:

Mr. McClel­lan addressed the Board by report­ing the Air­port-Air­line Agree­ment is now with the Air­lines for review, and explained that it is a 3‑year agree­ment with options to extend, as opposed to a 5‑year agree­ment which the air­lines were not com­fort­able with, and that it is very sim­i­lar to the cur­rent agreement.

Mr. McClel­lan report­ed sev­er­al RFQs will be com­ing out soon, one for Adver­tis­ing in the Ter­mi­nal, and one for Mar­ket­ing. He said Staff is work­ing on the Bud­get that will be dis­cussed at the Board Bud­get Work­shop on Sep­tem­ber 1; and that next month’s Board Meet­ing will be fol­lowed by the state-man­dat­ed 4‑hour Ethics Training.

Pub­lic Comments:

There were no Pub­lic Comments.

Adjourn­ment:

The meet­ing was adjourned at approx­i­mate­ly 10:14 a.m.

________________________________ ________________________________

Kathy Gilmore, Exec­u­tive Assis­tant James John­son, Act­ing Chair